


A Song For the Sea

by ActualAnimeTrash, matosuwa



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Mermaids, free! mermaids, gypsy makoto, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-13 18:06:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3391142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualAnimeTrash/pseuds/ActualAnimeTrash, https://archiveofourown.org/users/matosuwa/pseuds/matosuwa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mermaids are seen quite often from the docks of Portcliff, but rarely interact with the humans. Haru has kept his distance, until a gypsy with an enchanting voice captures his heart. Rin has always hated the humans, until a young prince changes his mind. Rei believes that love is illogical, until a boy from the wrong side of town changes the way he thinks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey hey hey so me and abby (megane-fucker on tumblr) teamed up to give you this snazzy mermaid fic. we're really proud of what we have so far, so if you like it, please leave kudos and comments, and feel free(!) to share this with your friends or followers!

 

> _“_ _Now my brothers call from the bay,_
> 
> _Now the great winds shoreward blow,_
> 
> _Now the salt tides seaward flow;_
> 
> _Now the wild white horses play,”_
> 
> _-The Forsaken Merman_ _, Matthew Arnold_

 

Some soul mates meet by random coincidence, others may meet by sharing a glance, by touching hands, through luck or fate or what have you. But he was certain they had met through song. 

 

Under the frigid grey waves, where sound runs slow and is muffled tenfold, the songs still reached him clear as a bell. And above water, where the air lifted the words and carried each syllable on the breeze, he knew he had fallen in love. 

 

Haru bobbed like a cork in the rise and fall of the surf, his tail swishing against gentle currents to right himself. Above him, through the slats of rotting, sea-beaten wood, the singer was performing to a small crowd of townsfolk. Silently, Haruka swam to one of the pier’s rickety columns and clung to it, craning his neck to look up at the voice’s owner. 

 

For days he had come to listen, only catching brief glances of the singer. From down in the water, Haruka knew very little about this man. His appearance was quite different from the usual townsfolks’, and he wore very worn leather boots on his feet. He wore multiple bangles on each wrist that would reflect light onto the grey sea, and his robes were quite long and woven from colorful threads. However, his face, his eyes, were a great mystery.

 

The town, a great mess of jumbled buildings and wooden shacks all resting on a great pier that rose up out of the water a meter or two. Haru could swim under the entire city if he wove regularly around the wooden posts that kept the town a float, but the constant creaking and groaning of the wooden planks made his skin crawl. Beyond the seaside town, jagged cliffs rose from a rocky shore and loomed ominously over all. 

 

The merman could care less about the sad little fishing port. The only thing that piqued his intrest as of now was this voice. It was so different from the eerie lullabies and siren songs he’d grown accustomed to over the years in his clan. The words of each song, some sung in unrecognizable languages, the other in the sweet-spoken English of the townspeople, trilled off of his tongue with such a light hearted passion. His voice was a prayer, a gift, or the glittering stars in the night sky. His voice was pure silk: smooth and round like the pearls the merpeople would harvest every spring. 

 

His current song, a soft spoken lullaby in another language, floated down in breathy lulls. Haruka felt his heart clench, his mouth dry out, as the song began to wind down. The crown of people clapped and sent kind words his way, and Haruka could hear the sound of coins falling into the tin cup resting on the docks. He thanked his audience and bid them all a good evening, and Haru watched in delayed fascination as he sat on the docks, letting his feet hang down over the edge.

 

The merman ducked behind a post, lowering his face under the lapping waves. His eyes remained above the sea, staring at the dangling feet that just barely kissed the surface. _This was his chance._

 

With bated breath, Haruka let his gaze trail upwards, past the calves and knees, past the worn hands that loosely grasped the sides of the peir, and up, over parts of him that Haruka had never seen before.

 

His chest was wide, shoulders broad and strong, a mess of necklaces and beads hung around his neck. Haru gulped, finally seeing the face of the singer. With a serene expression, a soft wistful smile, strong jaw, and deep green eyes that gazed out at the horizon, the man sat. His hair was a sandy brown, messy bangs tossed across his forehead in a windblown fashion, and his ears were pierced with golden rings. 

 

He was the most beautiful human- no… he was the most beautiful thing Haruka had ever laid eyes on, in the ocean or on land. His stomach felt queasy, the scales that dotted his cheeks radiated a heat that Haru could only compare to sunburn. 

 

He’d tried and imagined what the singer would look like, but all his expectations were met a thousand times over. Now, the only mystery left was his name. 

 

Haru raised his face out of the water more, biting onto his bottom lip as his heart hammered away in his chest. He opened his mouth to speak, filtering more water out of his gills than usual. 

 

“H-…” Haru breathed, so quiet the sound was lost to the evening wind. He composed himself, swallowing thickly. _Again._

 

“H- Oi!” Haru was yanked under water by his wrist. The shout left his lips so forcefully, the singer peered down at the sea, a puzzled expression written across his angelic face. All he saw was a ripple in the blank, grey sea. And then the sharp flick of a iridescent fin.  

 

“Haruka, what the hell are you doing so close to a _land rat_?” Rin snarled, pulling him quickly through the bleak waters with a strength Haru would never possess. The clan’s prince was also their most seasoned hunter and faster swimmer. 

 

Haru struggled against his grasp, his view of the dock becoming more and more skewed the deeper Rin pulled him. “Why do you care?”

 

Rin shot him a disdainful glare, “Humans are disgusting. They’ll eat your heart right out of your chest and separate your tail from your torso. Is _that_ what you want?”

 

Haru clicked out a sharp note at the other merman, mindful to not brush tails. Rin’s tail was quite long, a deep shade of burgundy that faded to black, and covered in jagged oysters and sea urchins. One swipe could kill. 

 

“Kou doesn't think so about humans. Neither do I.” Haru murmured, finally wrenching his wrist from Rin’s grasp. 

 

Rin whipped around, “What did you say about Gou?”

 

Rin’s younger sister, the princess of their clan,  was seen by many as their most precious asset. She had the classic oceanic beauty ever sailor would dream of, and the innocence of a newborn seal. Or so, Rin believed. 

 

Haru glanced away, “Forget it.”

 

Rin threatening swished his tail dangerously close to Haruka’s, watching the black-haired merman flinch. “Tell me.” 

 

Haruka sighed. “She visits with the humans quite often, these two sailors from the port.”

 

Rin made a horrified sound, darting away dramatically, cutting through the water with each swish of his tail.

 

“Where are you going?” Haruka called, to receive no answer. 

 

* * *

Portcliff stank, Makoto decided, trying to figure out a polite way to cover his nose. It reeked of dying fish and rotting wood and something that was distinctly oceanic.

 

He liked the little seaside town their caravan had stopped at, and trusted Kisumi's judgement in choosing places of good employment, but it smelled strongly fish and everything was damp, a result of the churning sea just a few meters below the stilts that kept the town together.

 

And, if the gossip of the dancers he sometimes performed with was to be believed, mermaids lived in Portcliff’s waters. Below the town, weaving through the posts under the city, and over in the cove by the abandoned lighthouse, merfolk were rumored to swim freely. Makoto hadn’t believed the stories that the locals had tried to tell him regarding the mermaids, and he hadn’t seen anything particularly magical during his first few days in town. 

 

Except for the flash of a huge blue fin he'd seen by the dock, which certainly didn't look like any fish Makoto had eaten. He left soon after, feeling chilly, and not because of the salty mist which seemed to hover over the town.

 

As he walked home from the docks, he watched the clouds above him darken in fascination. During the few days he'd been in Portcliff, it had rained nearly every day. The dismal weather upset the gypsy’s horses, which offhandedly upset Makoto.

 

The biting wind picked up and made Makoto's many necklaces jingle together as he walked back to the caravan. He'd only just set foot on the rocky shore when the first drops of rain hit his face. 

By the time he got to the usually lively circle of wagons that his caravan inhabited, it was flat out pouring, and the scarf that usually covered his head was sending rivulets of water down his face and into his eyes.

 

He fumbled with chilled fingers for the necklace that held the key to his home. A gust of wind sent the oil lamp hanging from the roof of the wagon swinging crazily, and the sea beat mercilessly against the cliffs. The gypsy found the key and turned it into the keyhole, and the red painted door of the wagon swung open.

 

The brown haired man tripped on his sodden robes, and the winds slammed his door shut behind him. He could still hear the storm raging outside of the painted wood walls, and if Makoto listened really well, he could hear the angry sounds of water against rock. 

 

Makoto wrung out the bandana around his head, letting his hair fall against his damp face, and carefully stepped out of his already weathered boots filled with water, unwinding wet robes from around himself. He spread the clothes wherever he had room he had left in his mobile apartment. Treasures he'd collected over the years took up most of the space in the little wagon. 

 

A nest of mismatched knit blankets sat heaped on a feather mattress, a pile of discolored pots and pans took over the wood-stove, which Makoto almost never used anyway, except for heat on nights like these.

 

 Assorted trinkets from all over the continent covered any possible space, and he thought it to be rather cozy, despite the urging of the other travelers in the caravan to get rid of some stuff. Dolls from shy children who admired his voice, flowers from sweet ladies whose affections he never managed to return, and jewelry from bold gentlemen, most of which Makoto wore on a daily basis.

 

He tried to clear a space for his sopping clothes to dry, but he ended up having to put them over the little black stove, praying that water wouldn't come in through the chimney. The brown haired man wrapped a blanket around his broad shoulders, shivering as he listened to the storm.

 

An especially strong gust of wind shook the wagon, and Makoto pulled the curtains around a window, and shoved a match into the stove. He couldn't imagine what it'd be like to be out on the sea right now.

___________

 

Far from the coast, Rin swam furiously. He dashed straight through schools of fish, tail snapping menacingly behind him. He had no set destination, other than level-headedness. After searching for Gou back in their den, Rin had set off to the open sea to try and burn off some of the frustration and anger that had coiled inside him. 

 

Above him, he could see how the surf matched his emotions. Rolling swells cascaded soundlessly. In the safe depths, Rin could only imagine how the weather was treating the humans. The froth of sea foam blocked the overcast sunlight from reaching him, casting the murky ocean further into bleakness. 

 

However, further away, Rin could see a dark figure that resembled that of a ship. It seemed quite large- larger than the usual fishing boats or merchant ships that he’d crossed paths with. He was close enough to see the helm after three brisk strokes. 

 

Now, the gigantic ship overwhelmed Rin. Panic gripped Rin’s senses as he heard the deep groaning of the massive vessel. All around him, barrels and crates sank quickly as the ship began to tilt in his direction. 

 

Rin propelled himself upwards, breaking the surface to get a better look of the sinking. The roar of the storm startled him, and he was promptly hit by a forceful way. Spitting salt water and slicking his hair away from his face, Rin could see sailors hastily jumping over board in vain attempts of survival. 

 

Another wave crashed over the redhead, sending him back down into the sea. From there, he watched in silence as the ships belly gave way, splitting in two in dramatic fashion that Rin could barely believe. The masts came crashing down as the sea began to swallow the ship whole. 

 

Dodging the falling debris, Rin rose to the surface again, watching in morbid curiosity as the ship lost it’s battle with the ocean.

 

Rin had seen shipwrecks before.  He'd watched splinters of wood and bits of sail floating in the water after a particularly nasty storm, and he'd seen human corpses sink to the sharks. Hell, Rin had even lived in a sunken ship for awhile. 

 

Listening to the frightened yells of crew members and the cracking of the mast, however, Rin felt a little sympathy. The ship, split in half and being tosses around like a simple rowboat had to have been on of the grandest ships he'd ever seen. The sides had been painted blue and white, golden lettering spelling out something now rendered illegible by the destruction done by the broken wood. The ship and more groaning noises, and a few more bits of cargo crashed to the water. 

 

Finally, the sea smothered the ship with water. It bobbed once more before disappearing all together, leaving nothing but it’s large masts and splintered wood in it’s wake. Rin swallowed, diving under a particularly large wave and resurfacing once more. Rain pelted against his skin as he treaded water, taking in the final wreckage. 

 

Out of the corner of his eye, something stood out against the near black sea. A shock of powder blue, clinging to a mast. The merman pushed planks of painted wood and broken barrels to get closer. His eyes registered the figure to be that of a human, flopped over huge mast like a dead seal. The human was barely hanging onto the slick wooden pole, and soon slipped under the surface from the push of a massive wave. 

 

Going against his morals, Rin dove quickly beneath the surf, instantaneously finding the human’s body only a few feet away. Rin swam against the storm’s currents, finding the cold clammy hand of the human and hauling them against his chest. Rin broke above the sea, desperately trying to get away from the wreckage. 

 

They were close to the cove, Rin could see the yellow lighthouse standing brilliantly against the grey skies. The human in his arms let their head hang forwards over Rin’s slick shoulder, their heart still fluttering rapidly in their chest. 

 

_I wonder if it’ll live_ , Rin mused. Finding the jagged shores of the lighthouse’s island, he laid the survivor’s lifeless body across a soaked rock. Finally, Rin could see it’s face. 

 

The boy, dressed elegantly in periwinkle, was soaked to the bone and stark white. His lips were blue and trembling, short grey hair matted against his skull. Distress was set on his delicate face, a frown prominent even though he was unconcious. 

 

Lying in his arms was a human boy. Humans were filthy savages, animals that had minds constantly set on war and violence, creatures that he had been raised to hate, taught to fear. This was a human Rin knew nothing about, had never seen, and could very well be everything that he assumed humans were. 

 

And Rin thought he was breathtaking. 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nagisa, a tired prostitute, needs to find shelter. The rumor-laden Ryugazaki manor has supposedly been abandoned from decades and seems like the perfect place to catch up on sleep.

> _New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings."-Lao Tzu_

 

Nagisa pulled the lacy hem of his skirt away from the swirling reaches of the tide. The cold water nipped instead at his boots on the slimy surface of the rocky beach. His eyes scanned the shoreline for the ragged little rowboat he'd stowed there the night before the storm. There was no sign of it.

 

The blonde frowned and looked again, seeing no sign of the boat. The lighthouse he normally resided in stood in the middle of the bay, waves lapping gently at the pebbly beach surrounding it. Without the boat, there was no way he was getting to it.

 

He glared at the lighthouse, willing it closer. The white-washed pillar stayed solidly out of reach, along with Nagisa's extra food, clothing and other possessions.

 

Magenta eyes skipped from the lighthouse to the outline of Portcliff in the distance, trying to make out the silhouette of one damp little shack from another. The illumination from the sunset helped him pick out the tailor, a bakery, and a lopsided boarding house. 

 

The waning light shone through the wooden stilts keeping the town above the water, and Nagisa raked his brain for somewhere to stay. He wasn’t brave enough to try sleeping on the beach again, last time he'd ended up soaked to the bone and broke, with his favorite corset gone. Sleeping in town somewhere was an invitation for wet skirts and empty wallets in the morning. 

 

The outline of the town branched out over the swirling gray sea, docks sticking out on all sides, except one. The Ryugazaki Manor stood at the end of a long pier on the north side of the port.

 

Nagisa surveyed the old house from afar. The only thing unusual about the manor was its size, and its removal from the rest of Portcliff. It had the standard rotting wood shingles on its sides, and shale tiled roof. Grimy glass covered the windows, but it spanned the amount of space that the entire town square did. 

 

Waves lapped at the blonde’s hem again, and he huffed irritatedly, hoisting them up and heading for Portcliff once more. The Ryugazaki Manor was said to be inhabited by a deranged man who never came outside, but Nagisa liked to walk on the pier leading up to it and watch the mermaids, and he'd never seen the slightest signs of life from the house.

 

Wet beach gravel crunched under his heeled boots until it gave way to muddy grass  and a worn trail. The stormy sea churned in the cove, and Nagisa scanned the surface for the the telltale flip of a mermaid's tail. They hung around here sometimes, when the sun was out, or the fog wasn't as bad as usual.

 

_'The mermaids must have already gone to sleep,_ ' Nagisa mused. His nap sack bounced against his back as he limped up into the hillside and towards the edges of Portcliff, wind whistling in his ears and mussing his hair. Coins jingled in his bag with every half step he took, lower half of his body still sore from work, but the money he’d cultivated from customers tonight made up for it. 

 

If Nagisa squinted, he could see the bright speck of light that was the gypsies' cook fire up on the cliffs. He could barely the beating of their drums and tambourines, and a hint of some kind of flute over the crash of the tides against the rocks. It only barely got louder as he got nearer to the town, and faded off more as he crossed the rickety docks into Portcliff.

 

The lamplighter had only finished half the town, but even under the light of the lamps, Nagisa felt uneasy. He knew the streets well and didn't think he'd get lost, but a man of his profession in the night was nearly always in danger.

 

A fat white moon rose as the blonde neared the Ryugazaki mansion. The lamp boys didn't come near there, and the pier leading up to the sprawling old house was only lit by the light of the moon. The waves lulled against the beams supporting the town, filling the otherwise silent evening with soft ocean sounds.

 

He'd never been down this way at night, and Nagisa thought it was a shame. With no other buildings to obstruct the view, the Ryugazaki Mansion had an extraordinary view of the cliffside to the south, to the west ocean as far as you could see, and the mermaid cove with the lighthouse in the east. On the north side, you could probably see the ocean as far as the horizon line, but the house itself obstructed that view from Nagisa.

 

His skirts blew in the early night wind, and the blonde drew his shawl and bag closer to his body, standing in front of the massive house. It was a lot bigger up close, and he'd never been as close to the mansion as he was now.

 

They say fishing towns are the most superstitious; the sailors even more so, but Nagisa had never been one to follow in these silly traditions as he viewed them, but looking up at  the rickety old house he'd been told ghost stories about in his childhood, he wondered if he should've paid them more heed.

 

"It's just a story." Nagisa whispered to himself, willing himself forward to the weather beaten door. 

 

He set a hand against the peeling wood, the other on a rusty old doorknob. To his surprise, it swung open easily when he pushed. _This place has to be empty._ He thought, feeling relieved the doors hadn’t been locked. Nagisa was prepared for an impromptu break in if the cold winds got any harsher.

 

However, it didn’t look like a house that has been had been neglected for decades. There was no dust on the creaking floor for Nagisa's lacey train to collect, and the house was nearly unaffected by the years its stood empty. 

 

Nagisa took a deep breath and headed up the stairs that spanned out in front of him, moonlight through a window illuminating the path to a long hall full lined with doors. The first door to Nagisa’s left was open. With caution, Nagisa slowly opened the door. It appeared to be a bedroom, perhaps the master suite. Once again, he was struck by how lived-in the abandoned mansion looked. 

 

Maybe he wasn't as alone as he thought here.

 

The call of the threadbare sheets on a fancy looking four-poster was louder in the man's mind than the eerie sounds of the old house and the ocean. Sleep’s gentle seduction sent trendals of drowsiness running through his system.

 

He dropped his leather satchel from his back to the worn wooden floor with a clink of the coins he'd earned. The knots on the worn patent leather of his boots were hard to undo, but Nagisa got it eventually. His shawl he dropped from around him next to the bag and boots.

 

A jaw-splitting yawn escaped him, and Nagisa folded back the violet sheets. He hadn't had the luxury of an actual bed in sometime. All his muscles relaxed as soon as he rolled onto the feather mattress. 

 

The fatigue melted away, and his sore lower body even faded to a dull throb as his eyes closed, and Nagisa surrendered himself to the reassuring waves of sleep. 

 

_____________________

 

Rei was pretty sure he hadn't opened the front door. He was almost certain, in fact, as he hadn't opened the front door since he moved into his grandparent's old house. 

 

 He swung it shut, regardless. It was quite possible that the ocean winds could have opened it.

 

_'Or an intruder'_ , a far less rational portion of his brain suggested. Rei shook his head. Nobody had so much as approached his house for as long as he had lived there. Which was... 6 months, if his math was correct.

 

The bespectacled man flipped open his black notebook with the days findings in it, beginning his nightly analysis of his data as he trudged up the stairs. 

 

To Rei's surprise, instead of the sun setting outside his window, he saw the sun rising instead, the top of it just now emerging out from the nearly flat ocean.

 

He let out a long sigh, unsurprised. This was not the first time the pursuit of knowledge had kept Rei up from sunrise to sunrise. He set his red spectacles on the top of his head for a moment, rubbing his indigo eyes blearily. Such an irregular sleep pattern was no doubt bad for his health.

 

Rei lived alone. This he was sure of, and yet when he entered his bedroom there was someone curled amongst his sheets who was decidedly not him.

 

The person's fluffy blonde hair was stuck up at odd angles from Rei's pillows, and their arm was wrapped around Rei's blankets. For some reason, the person did not look terribly out of place, even though it was Rei's bed he was in.

 

Normally, Rei would probably have let the person sleep and then chase them out when they awoke. However, Rei had just spent nearly 24 hours in his laboratory and he was not feeling the most generous. So he stepped over the person's belongings, which were laid haphazardly by his bed, and shook the person roughly awake.

 

They shifted and muttered something sleepily and turned away from Rei, much to his annoyance.  He shook harder this time, and the blonde turned over and opened their eyes.

 

 They were the most beautiful shade Rei had ever seen.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyy thanks for all the kudos! we also really love reading your feedback!


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